The performance of today's digital integrated circuits largely depends on the capabilities of logic synthesis tools. In this context, efficient representation and optimization of Boolean functions are key features. Some data structures and algorithms have been proposed for these tasks (see references [1]-[8]). Most of them consider, as basis operations, inversion (INV), conjunction (AND), disjunction (OR) (see references [2]-[5]) and if-then-else (MUX) (see references [6], [7]). Other Boolean operations are derived by composition. Even though existing design automation tools, based on original optimization techniques (see references [1]-[8]), produce good results and handle large circuits, the possibility to push further the efficacy of logic synthesis continues to be of paramount interest to the Electronic Design Automation (EDA) community.
With this aim in mind, the invention approaches the logic optimization problem from a new angle.